The Misplaced Student
by blink8pogonip
Summary: Liang Zhifu, a 12-year-old student from China, travels to the United States to compete in the Tripps National Spelling Bee. However, the trip is not going to be as simple as a short stop in Albequerque and an arrival in Washington, D.C. My first Cars fic!
1. Departure

A/N: I haven't seen Cars 2 yet, but here's my first fic for the franchise. Takes place a while after the first film, and before the second one. I haven't been uploading stories recently because of (A) writers' block and (B) I've been focusing on other things (don't ask).

But here I am with a Cars story about a little Chinese car. :) The story is currently under construction, but I'll make it happen. For this chapter and any dialogue between "Chinese characters" (no pun intended there), just assume that they all talk in Chinese. I hope you enjoy!

Oh, yeah, merry Christmas!

Disclaimer: I don't own Cars, it belongs to Pixar; however, all OC's belong to me.

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><p>The Misplaced Student<p>

Chapter 1: Departure

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><p>Nǐ hǎo (你好)! My name is pronounced Liang Zhifu. It's a Chinese name, since I'm from Beijing. The two parts of my given name mean "wisdom", "knowledge", or "intelligence", and "to comfort or pacify", while "Liang" is my family name. My English name, though, is Jeffrey, and most people I come across who don't speak Chinese use that name.<p>

Like I said, I'm from Beijing. My dad runs the very successful electronics company Lectrix, and my mom stays at home, though she's a very good cook. I have no brothers or sisters at all (which kind of sucks).

I'm a 12-year-old boy who attends middle school. My passions include electronics (especially from Lectrix), and sports (like the ones featured in the Olympics- in fact, I actually attended the 2008 Beijing Olympics!). I hope to share these passions with others and to be one of the best in each of these fields.

I also love languages. In fact, I'm fluent in both Chinese and English, and I hope to learn a few more. And guess what my love of language has gotten me into? The spelling bee.

Yep, of all things a preteen student/athlete /gadget geek could do, it's the Spelling Bee. Most guys my age would think that this kind of activity is for nerds, but it's somewhat cool, because it's the Tripps National Spelling Bee, which takes place in Washington, D.C., and many students from the United States and around the world get to compete there. It's not easy at all (seriously, it's _especially_ hard to spell obscure English words when English is _not _your first language), but I managed to win the bee for China, and I'll be heading for the United States to go head to head with about a couple hundred other kids my age!

My parents aren't able to come with me at the moment, because Baba has an important meeting with some other business people. Mama is going to stay with him and help him out. So it's all me, and it's my first time ever flying alone.

So I am pretty excited to get to the United States, since it's my first time ever landing my tires in that country. This experience, I guarantee, will be the time of my life.

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><p>Gate 26 stood right in front of me at the Beijing International Airport. It's a flight to Washington, D.C., stopping at a city called Albequerque right in the middle of the flight. I was holding my carry-on bag, filled with my phone, my MP3 player, plenty of money, a dictionary, and a few other things.<p>

Both of my parents gave me a kiss as I looked at them.

"Be safe over there, OK, Zhifu?" Mama said to me.

"Don't worry, Ma, I'll be fine." I sort of rolled my eyes in embarrassment from their kiss, but I know it's to show me how much they love me. After all, they care _too _much for my safety- like I said, it's my first time flying alone.

"And have fun over there, all right?" said Baba, tapping my right tire slightly.

I sighed and smiled. "Yeah, of course, Baba," I answered. "It's a new country. I think it'll be too hard to not enjoy it."

I pulled my bag up with me, and turned around to my parents, who waved their tires enthusiastically. I waved back as I walked up to the ticket collector and handed her my ticket.

"A flight to Washington, D.C., United States of America, wth a stop at Albequerque?" she confirmed. "All by yourself?"

"Uh...yes," I answered. "But my parents will come along sometime soon."

"Okay," the ticket collector said, ripping off the smaller flap of my ticket and handing me back the other part. "You are in an economy seat, 19B. Enjoy your flight, young man."

"_Xie xie_," I said as I started heading straight through Gate 26 with my bag still latched onto me. I turned around once again to see my parents waving at me again. Their smiles were so endearing, I felt like I would just burst with all the love they were giving me. I waved once again, and continued to wave for what seemed like half a minute. I sometimes feel that way, that I just can't be that much farther away from them, and I that I could just wave forever- or just stay with them forever, to put off any time where I have to leave them.

But I had to go on; the plane would depart in 20 minutes. So I walk down the cold yet decently-lit jet bridge, turning around and seeing my parents just looking at me lovingly. I give one last wave of my tire to them, and I watch them do the same.

I continued walking down the jet bridge until I very quickly arrived at the small airplane door. A flight attendant greeted me very warmly and sweetly as I handed her my ticket.

"Row 19 is past the second set of lavatories," she told me, pointing out the direction of my row among the sea of comfortable, blue seats.

"_Xie xie_," I said. I headed down, my tires rotating very slowly as I passed through the narrow aisle. Some of the passengers stared at me for a second, then averted their eyes when I look at them. I've noticed people doing that on airline trips- maybe they're so bored that they just stare at the slews of passengers. But I eventually reached my seat- a middle seat, not my favorite type- and carefully placed my bag below, trying to make sure I didn't clutter the small space between my row and the row in front of me.

Now my least favorite part about airplanes- waiting for the other passengers to get seated!

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><p>I think I fell asleep- I don't know, maybe I just closed my eyes without really drifting off to sleep. Either way, it made the time pass by much more quickly for me. I looked to my left- there was a college-age student, dressed in a pink paint job. She was talking to someone who seemed to be her boyfriend- another college-age student, this time with a red paint job, who was not much larger than she was. To my right was an elderly man reading a magazine.<p>

A few seconds later, the intercom turned on.

"Hello, and good afternoon. Thank you for flying Red Dragon Air. We are glad that you chose to fly with us. At this moment, we have a safety video for you to watch so that you know how to stay safe on the plane and what to do in case of an emergency. Again, thank you, and enjoy the video." A couple of seconds later, the entire thing was repeated in English.

After the intercom turned off, there were a few seconds of silence, except for the little children laughing some number of seats behind me. Then the lights dimmed; I could still hear the same children oohing at the lighting effect. One of them shouted "It's dark now!" The screens above popped open from the ceiling. I waited patiently for the video to start. I admit to liking these videos- they're somewhat fun to watch, I have no idea why.

There was a hint of static on the screen, then it was totally black again. Then the monitors gradually lightened into the little safety video, its title screen showing the logo of the airline in a heavenly cloud background.

It was the typical safety instructional video- "please fasten your seat belts and put your tray tables in the upright positions", "smoking is prohibited on all flights". "in the unlikely event that we have to make an emergency landing on water, pull on the tab underneath your seat, and you will find a life vest in the compartment." "if you are seated in an exit row, please be aware of the exit row responsibilities, and ask a flight attendant if you would like to be reseated." It was relatively normal in length- after a bit less than 3 minutes, the video closed with the friendly flight attendant thanking the passengers for choosing their airlines and uttering the oft-said cliché phrase "enjoy the flight".

The video ended with an airplane soaring into the sky, with the logo appearing once again. The whole thing faded to black, and then the screens retracted into their original positions. Within a few seconds, I felt the plane moving forward, very slowly at first. Then the whole plane turned to the left for about eleven seconds, and then I could hear the engines starting.

We started to move once again, slowly, and then the pace gradually quickened. The same children in the back were laughing with excitement now. Within a few seconds the engines' roaring was blaring loudly, and we were moving quickly along the runway- I could tell because everything outside the window was just a blur- except for the trees and the control tower far away. As I anticipated the tilt upwards that signified takeoff, I felt a jolt of excitement, not because the plane was taking off, but because I would be heading to a country I had read about, had wanted to visit, and now, that I would be competing in.

The United States of America was a place known for its freedom and diversity- things I didn't know too much about, since not a lot of people in China are non-Chinese, and freedom is severely (I mean _severely_) restricted. And it wouldn't hurt to enjoy all of the pastimes of the American people- the sport of baseball and the delicacies of hot dogs and apple pie (they have stuff like that in China, but it's very rare and unauthentic. If I touched down in America, I would really know what that stuff tasted like!)

And in just five seconds, we were completely off the ground. I looked outside the window again, and the airport and all the buildings and roads around it began to shrank. Then I looked up at the blue sky abundant with puffy white clouds.

And so began my journey.

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><p>AN: Yeah...good story starter, huh? Like I said, the plot is still under construction, but I'll find a way...somehow...:/

As for food...the cars eat the same things we do :)

EDIT: I accidentally originally wrote Phoenix in the original. I meant Albequerque! (Radiator Springs is somewhere around New Mexico or Arizona, but I should be consistent about it.) I also added an explanation as to why Zhifu's parent's can't come.

So, Merry Christmas! Don't forget the reason for the season!

Até breve!


	2. Flight & Halfway Stop

A/N: Hey, it's me again. So here's chapter 2 of the story.

By the way, in case you were wondering how to pronounce Zhifu's name, here it is: the "Zhi" part is pronounced like the "jur" in "jury", and "fu" is like the "foo" in "food". So a rough pronunciation of his name would be "jur-foo" (just think of "jury food" or something like that :P).

I'll probably provide some translations of Chinese words at the end of each chapter, just as I did with my Rescue of Love story.

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Cars, it belongs to Pixar and Disney. However, all OCs belong to me.

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><p>The Misplaced Student<p>

Chapter 2: Flight/Halfway Stop

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><p>A few hours passed by after takeoff. I decided to pull out my pocket English dictionary, and a list of national-level spelling bee words. This list contained so many complicated words- some of them not even in your typical dictionary! And I don't mean hard spelling words for the average English speaker like <em>accommodate <em>or _onomatopoeia_- I mean words like _scherenschnitte, urushiye, _and _isagoge._ These words are probably usually only found in the dictionaries that weigh a ton.

I spent a little time skimming the words from Greek, Latin, and French, since those words were very common and hard to spell. I also brought along a list of the lesser known Greek and Latin roots, which I also quickly perused.

I heard a little whispering between two men about two rows in front of me, on the other side of the plane. They were American, not Chinese- I could tell by their accents. They really seemed somewhat suspicious, especially by the way they were snickering, but I decided not to jump to conclusions. Besides, it didn't concern me at all.

The intercom turned on once again, this time to announce that the evening meal was ready to be served in a few minutes. I felt glad about that, since I was actually pretty hungry and didn't pack anything to eat. I continued studying the words I had written on the sheet, closing my eyes and attempting to spell them out to see if I had memorized them.

I ended up spelling my words correctly- almost all of them. When I write words down, I tend to memorize them right away. The ones I ended up misspelling were from Latin and French- so many double and silent letters!

So the food cart came up to my row, and when I got the food, I had to admit, it was delicious. I actually really enjoy airline food, and when you're hungry on a plane, there's nothing better than hot, plentiful food waiting for you.

After the meal, I took a quick break and decided to listen to my mp3 player (its model was the most recent model from Lectrix). And pretty soon, I was falling asleep to a little C-pop.

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><p>After a while, the whole trip got rather boring- it was like an endless cycle of reading my dictionary, studying, listening to music, eating food, occasionally using the restroom, and sleeping.<p>

And then some really weird thing happened.

As I headed to the restroom one more time, I saw, right out of the corner of my eye, the same two men staring at me. I took a short glance back at them, but they quickly turned away. I looked at them a little suspiciously and kept them in the corner of my eye until I reached the restroom. I quickly opened the door, got in the small dark room, and closed the latch. The lights illuminated shortly afterwards.

_I think those men are spying on me...I have a really weird feeling something is going to_ _happen_, I thought to myself in the cramped lavatory. _Something they're doing probably concerns me__...things might get_ _ugly..._

My tires did have a stain of cream sauce on them, so I decided to wash them. As my right tire touched the soap pump, I thought about what those men might do to me- heavens forbid that they would do anything to me.

I cracked open the lavatory door- with the lights turning off inside- and took a small peek. The same two men were whispering to each other- it was audible, but I couldn't make out anything. I was quite curious as to what they might want with me.

"Um, excuse me, kid, but are you done using the toilet?" asked a voice in Chinese. I was really shocked upon hearing it- but as I glanced right, I saw it was just a man- dark blue paint job, probably in his early twenties, waiting to use the restroom.

"Oh, uh, sorry, sir," I said as I slowly left the restroom. "Yes, I'm done. Go ahead." I went back to my seat.

"All right, thanks," he said as he entered. I had almost reached my seat once I heard the door click shut.

I squeezed past the girl who sat to my left. The space was so narrow, I almost bumped into her.

"_Duibuqi_," I said as I squeezed uncomfortably back into my seat. I looked up at the monitor in front of me. _A little in-flight entertainment couldn't hurt_, I thought. So I put on some headphones and began browsing through the movies.

And for a few hours, I didn't think all that much about the suspicious men. I just had to keep my mind busy.

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><p>DING!<p>

I heard the tiny electronic bell sounding, forcing my eyes open as I awoke from a long slumber. And just a few seconds later, the intercom turned on again.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please. The time in Albuquerque is approximately 3:15, p.m. In approximately 30 minutes we will be landing in Albuquerque International Sunport. Please keep your seat belts fastened and your seats and tray tables in the upright positions. Stow away any electronic devices at this time. Also, the inflight entertainment will be disabled shortly. Thank you for flying Red Dragon Air. We hope you choose to fly with us again soon." Afterwards, the intercom turned off with a soft, fuzzy noise.

I quickly tucked away all my possessions, and just sat there for the next 15 minutes. There was really nothing to do except look past the man to my right and out the window, waiting for the ground and buildings of Albuquerque to appear.

Eventually I saw it. It was a somewhat large city, not as big as Beijing, of course. But it looked neat from above.

Then I saw the airport. The buildings came closer to us, and in a few seconds the plane nearly touched the gray runway below.

A one-second bump surprised me when the plane's wheels finally hit the road. For what seemed like a whole minute, it was a bumpy ride that caused everything to shake. I was almost afraid bags would start flying out of the overhead compartments.

Then the plane began to slow. The bumps subsided, until it came to a gradual stop at the gate. Then it was yet another long wait until the seatbelt signs would turn off. It was perhaps two minutes until that happened.

Everyone then got out slowly from their seats, waiting for the people in front of them to get their bags and head on out.

I then remembered that I would have to leave too, because I needed to transfer planes. I was going to fly on another plane all the way to the capital.

Once the passengers around me started to exit, I quickly grabbed my bag underneath and went slowly down the aisle.

"Thank you for flying with us," one of the attendants said.

"_Xie xie," _I thanked back as I turned left to the jet bridge.

And it was official; that was when I first set my tire in the United States. It felt awesome, like I was going to explore a new land, which I was.

I slowly drove all the way to the end of the jet bridge, and as soon as I got there, I caught my first glimpse of an American airport. The Albuquerque International Sunport was really not like the Beijing airport- I guess there really is a difference between Asian airports and American ones.

_I guess I could stay around awhile_, I thought._ And I don't see those suspicious men anywhere. Well,_ _I might as well exchange my money now._

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><p>NA: Yeah, sorry for not updating this one in a while...I have about three stories on my back, plus life.

I know that, in real life, a plane wouldn't go from a huge city like Beijing to a less populous one like Albuquerque. It would probably stop at Los Angeles or some other huge city. But hey, this is the Cars world, it's different from ours. And besides, it's for the sake of my story. :)

Translations:

_Duibuqi- _Sorry

_Xie xie-_Thank you

Hopefully I'll get around posting the next chapter soon.

Au revoir!


	3. Terminal & Suspicious Business

N/A: Chapter 3...nothing really to say, except that I hope it gets exciting right around here.

I don't really know what the Albuquerque Sunport looks like, but I'm going to include a purely fictional description.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Cars, it belongs to Pixar and Disney. However, all OCs belong to me.

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><p>The Misplaced Student<p>

Chapter 3: Terminal/Suspicious Business

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><p>"Thank you," I said as I shoved some U.S. money into my wallet. I had just finished exchanging some of my money, and began to leave the exchange desk.<p>

I drove over to a bench, next to some potted plants. I decided to rest for a short while and listen to my mp3 player. I put in my earbuds, turned on the tiny device, and began rolling the small wheel to scroll through my library.

I looked around at the nice airport that was before me, as the pop music with its electronic sounds resonated in my head. I really felt like exploring this American Airport, even if it was a little less exquisite than the one in Beijing. But first I would let the song finish...or should I just go right on and wander around?

Well, I ended up listening to _two_ full songs before I got off the bench. But it wasn't like I wasted much time- there would still be about four hours before my next flight.

I stopped by a quick burger joint and ordered a typical meal, sans the soda (I just took some sips from the water fountain). Then I walked into a duty-free shop and looked around at the vast array of items they were selling. I didn't really plan on spending any money there; I didn't want to waste too much money before I actually got to Washington, D.C.

I later took a short trip to the bathroom- after all, the flight made me thirsty, and I ended up drinking a lot while noshing my afternoon meal. Once I got in, I saw the bathroom- it was slightly cleaner than the ones in China (although nothing beats the ones in Japan and Singapore).

After I had taken care of business, I sat back down in another comfy bench- although its plushness made it seem more like a couch. I thought about pulling out my phone, but then I remembered that making international calls was very expensive, even for someone like my father. So much for calling my parents...or anyone for that matter.

I looked around, with just a small disappointment, but then I saw a sign that gave me an idea.

The sign read, "Free Wi-Fi in this terminal". That meant that I could email my parents- just to let them know how I was doing.

I quickly took my laptop out of my pack, then pressed the power button to boot it up. Thanks to the new operating system on our laptop, I had logged in in just a matter of seconds.

The list of networks that I opened up was a very short one. I scanned the list down (most of them were from nearby hotels) and I found it- the network for the airport.

The computer connected to the Internet in a jiffy- and pretty soon I was opening my inbox.

Just as soon as I clicked "Compose Message", and began typing, two cars approached me. I looked up from my screen- and I saw that they were security personnel.

"Excuse us, young man," asked one of them. "What is your name, and from where did you fly?"

I remembered what my mother told me long ago- something she reminded me on almost every trip we took- _don't follow strangers, even if they seem to be policemen._ I've always heeded that as good advice. But what was I to do? They were government agents- they probably needed to interrogate me about my citizenship status, or my visa.

"Um..." I started hesitantly. "Liang Zhifu, sir. But you can call me Jeffrey. And I just flew in from Beijing." I figured that it would be okay to give _some _of my personal information to law enforcement.

"We need you to come with us," the same car said. "By federal law, you must come with us. We have some, uh, papers for you to review." The fillers he used sounded like normal speech- not like he was cooking up a plot on the spot.

I felt like I had no choice. I put my laptop on hibernate and tucked it away in my pack. I got off the bench and followed the officers quietly.

We rounded some corners- I saw many cars of all shapes, sizes, and colors, walking by, eating in the food shops, shopping around, doing whatever. I've always thought airports were fun places to be.

"Excuse me, but, am I going to miss my flight to Washington, D.C.?" I asked, worried about how I was going to get to the capital.

"Why, no, young man. If you happen to be late, we will arrange something with the airline. Only a slight alteration in the schedule," said the first security car. It was like he was talking pseudo-intelligently. He seemed suspicious- _both of them_ seemed suspicious, like I had seen them before. But they looked like genuine officers to me. Besides, lots of cars look alike...maybe I was just thinking things.

Eventually we entered a dark room, with only a few lamps here and there- the lights on the ceiling weren't even on. I entered, right between the two security cars. The second one shut the door right behind us, while the first talked to what seemed like someone behind a chair.

Then, all of a sudden, the whole room became pitch black. There was practically no light- the window shades were completely closed, too. I wondered, _was this for dramatic effect or something?_

"Hey, what's going on? Who turned out the lights?" I asked, panicked.

Then, it was like a flash- the lights immediately came back on again- even the ones on the ceiling that weren't previously on. But in front of me, I saw three different cars.

The two on the sides looked _just like the suspicious ones on the airplane! _It donned on me that they had apparently been wearing the security costumes as disguises, and now donned their regular red and dull yellow-golden paint jobs.

And the one in the middle- he really looked like a head honcho. Sleek aqua green color, pretty tall, and a thick chassis, round in some areas, square in others.

"Hello, Mr. Jeffrey Liang," he said in a deep bass-like voice, giving me an evil facial expression.

I gasped, hoping that I wasn't involved in some big conspiracy. But the way things were turning out, it was definitely a possibility.

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><p>AN: Great twist in plot and all, huh? All of a sudden, my character's got himself involved in some seemingly evil plot. :O

Hopefully I can write the next chapter soon, but remember I've got maybe two or three other stories.

Do svidanja!


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